


Coke Bottles & Coffee Shops

by etselec



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, M/M, bonding over coca cola, trust me - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 17:13:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2236995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etselec/pseuds/etselec
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hello, excuse me. I don’t mean to be a bother but, I couldn’t help but notice that your Coke bottle has the name ‘Charles’ on it. Is your name Charles too?”</p><p>basically au where charles and erik blindly pick coke bottles with each other's name and find this out when they're in line</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coke Bottles & Coffee Shops

It was the first time in about a year that Charles was finally seeing his sister.

She had been attending some fancy-as-fuck college that had an excellent acting program, according to her. But she was all the way in California and Charles was stuck in New York on his own in a small apartment.

The doorbell rang at exactly 8:30—right in the middle of an episode of one of Charles’ favorite cooking shows. He pushed himself off of the couch and whipped open the door, greeted with a bright smile and bright eyes.

“Raven!” Charles pulled her inside, hugging her tight. “It feels like it’s been for _ever!_ How’s college, dear?”

“Oh, everything’s wonderful! Did I tell you I met a boy? He studies stage tech,” Raven gushed, shedding her coat and placing it delicately on one of the coat hooks. “His name’s Hank. You’d like him.”

Charles smiled, leading Raven into his living room. “I’d absolutely love to meet him.”

“With that said, I’m starving,” Raven groaned, flopping facedown on to the couch. “The flight was hectic, thank you for asking. This baby wouldn’t stop crying and this guy wouldn’t stop sneezing.”

“I’m _so_ sorry, princess,” Charles teased, shuffling into the kitchen. He yanked open the fridge, his mouth twisting into a frown at the contents. “I don’t have any food besides a head of lettuce and bottle of mustard,” Charles stuck his tongue in his cheek, “but I could run over to the grocery store and get us something.”

“That’d be nice,” Raven mumbled into the fabric of the couch.

Charles smirked, plucking a jacket off of one of his coat hooks. “You’re getting weird. Want to come with?”

“No thanks,” Raven muttered sleepily, already drifting off by the time Charles had zipped his jacket up.

“See you later Raven, love,” Charles sighed, locking his door. He stuck his hands in his jean pockets and headed down his winding hallway, down the stairs and out into the crisp night. It was mid-fall so it was rather cold at night—not that he minded.

Crossing the street, Charles pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He finally entered the grocery store, the sudden bright light temporarily blinding him. Charles grabbed some frozen pizza that he could pop into the oven and a box of donuts for later. Just as he was about to fall in line, he spotted a box of Coke. He couldn’t remember if Raven liked Coke or Pepsi better, but she wouldn’t really care. Charles blindly grabbed a bottle of Coke and bottle of Arizona iced tea from another box for himself.

God, the line was long.

Charles thought that the line would be pretty short since it was nearly 9:00, but he guessed wrong. He sighed, and got behind a tall man wearing a brown leather jacket. The man raised his hand to scratch the back of his neck—the same hand that held a coke bottle with Charles’ name written across the wrapping.

Charles hadn’t been living under a rock; he knew that Coca Cola was now personalizing peoples’ names on the bottles and cans, but he’d never actually _seen_ one with _his_ name on it!

He tapped the shoulder of the man in front of him. They weren’t even halfway to the register yet. “Hello, excuse me. I don’t mean to be a bother but, I couldn’t help but notice that your Coke bottle has the name ‘Charles’ on it. Is your name Charles too?”

The man turned around and Charles’ eyes bugged out. The man was a sexgod—he was wearing a pretty tight shirt (the leather jacket was unzipped much to Charles’ pleasure) and Charles could see abs. He gaped.

The sexg—man lifted the bottle to his face. “Oh. I didn’t even look picking.” He smiled weakly, looking at the items in Charles’ arms. He raised his eyebrows. “I’m guessing you aren’t Erik.”

“What?”

The man nodded to the bottle nudged under his arm.

“Oh. _Oh._ Honestly, I wasn’t looking either,” Charles knit his eyebrows together. “That’s interesting, I’ve never met someone who spelled ‘Erik’ with a ‘K’ instead of a ‘C’.”

The man shrugged, resisting to smile. “Now you have.”

“What? No! _No._ Your name’s Erik?!” Charles was smiling wide. “That’s unbelievable, we picked Cokes that have each other’s names!”

“Hey! Move up, assholes!” someone grunted from behind them.

“Terribly sorry,” Charles lightly pushed Erik and walked up behind him. “It’s rather crowded here. I can’t imagine why when it’s 9:00 o’clock at night.”

Erik looked over his shoulder to Charles. “You’d be surprised. I’ve seen people here at 1:00 AM,” he explained, placing his Coke bottle on the conveyer belt in front of the cash register. Charles put his items behind his. “Hey, uh, by the way, you live around here? Not to, um, be creepy or anything,” Erik swallowed, “I— I myself live about four miles down.”

Charles chuckled, watching Erik hand money to the cashier. “Actually, I live just across the street.”

“Really now?”

“Yeah, I order takeout practically all the time,” Charles swiped his credit card and signed his name, “I’m only here because my sister’s in town.”

Erik nodded, waiting for Charles to grab his bagged items. He could only stare as Charles walked towards him.

Charles met Erik by his side and grinned. “So, see you around Erik.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Erik replied, “Charles.”

Charles shrugged, slowly making his way to the doors. He turned around one last time. “It was really nice meeting you.”

Erik wanted to look at his shoes, because he was unsure of what to say. “It was really nice meeting you, too.”

And Charles was gone, leaving Erik with the vivid image of soft blue eyes and flushed cheeks.

By the time Erik had started his car, Charles was already crossing the street, a smile plastered across his face; he hoped anyone who saw him thought he was weird or anything.

“Hey you,” Raven greeted the minute he walked through the door. Her eyes followed him into the kitchen. “What took you so long?”

Charles bit his lip, trying not to go on about Erik. “Long line. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he pressed some buttons on his oven to preheat it. “Oh, I got you a Coke if that’s alright. Catch.” Charles threw the Coke into his living room and sighed when he heard a loud thud.

“Sorry,” Raven called back, “but thanks—hey who’s Erik?”

For a split second, Charles started panicking. _Oh my God can Raven read minds? Does she know how— oh, yeah. The bottle._ “Oh _that._ I wasn’t looking when I picked it out, okay?”

Raven giggled. “That’s fine.”

They dined on pizza and donuts later on. Raven rambled on about her college experience, but all Charles could think about was Erik.

—

The next morning, Charles purposed that he and Raven should get coffee. Raven obliged, mentioning that she hadn’t had a good cup of coffee in forever. Charles decided not to mention it was just the Starbucks down the street.

“Anyone in your life at the moment, Charles?” Raven asked, looping an arm through his as they walked.

Charles blinked, feeling his face grow warm. “Er, no,” he mumbled.

“Aw, I’m sorry. You know if you want me to, I could—”

“Stop right there,” Charles interrupted, holding the door to Starbucks open, “Raven, I do not want you to hook me up with one of your college friends.”

Raven snorted, covering her mouth with her gloved hand. “I wasn’t going to.”

“ _Sure,”_ Charles muttered. He changed the subject. “What do you want?”

“An espresso’s fine, thank you,” Raven sat herself down at a table.

Charles nodded, slinging his jacket across a chair. His eyes immediately found the pastries and he wondered if he should get the blueberry muffin or scone. Charles sighed and decided he’d get both.

“Hi, what would you like to order?”

Charles gazed back up from the pastries. “Yes, hello, I’d like—oh my God, Erik!” Charles nearly cried when he saw him and it’d been all but one day since the Coke bottle incident. “You work here?”

“Charles,” Erik nodded and combed his fingers through his hair, “this is pretty… interesting— I mean, meeting you here. Well, meeting you _again.”_

“To be honest, I haven’t stopped thinking about you since,” Charles laughed, failing to meet Erik’s eyes. He dared to look back up.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you either,” Erik admitted. He peered over his shoulder. “You better order something or I’m fired.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry. Espresso and green tea. Unsweetened. Oh, and a scone and blueberry muffin,” Charles recited.

“Great, thank you,” Erik grabbed the pastries and held them out to Charles who gladly took them. A few minutes later, he arrived with the espresso and tea.

Charles handed Erik a ten dollar bill. “Here you are. Keep the change.”

“Thank you—”

“I know it’s not much,” Charles cut in, “but I think I could make the rest of it up by taking you out to dinner later.”

Erik’s ears turned pink. He didn’t say a word for several seconds.

Charles broke the silence. “I know you must get asked out on a _latte_ dates—get it?” Charles slapped the counter and nearly broke into a fit of laughter.

Erik sighed. “The only reason I’m _not_ rolling my eyes is because I like you. In other words, I’d love to get dinner with you later.”

Charles’ lips quirked up into a satisfied grin. “Would it be completely rude if I kissed you right now?”

Erik leaned forward and smiled back. “Not at all.”

Charles stood on his tiptoes and his lips met with Erik’s. The kiss made his stomach flutter and by the time it was over, Charles was already back for more, cupping Erik’s face and tongue nearly in his mouth. “There’s _definitely_ more that came from,” he mumbled against Erik’s mouth.

“Good. I can’t wait,” Erik said, forcing himself to pull away from Charles.

Charles took ahold of the drinks and pastries and finally met Raven at the table.

“What the _hell_ took you so long?” Raven demanded, folding her arms.

“I’m so sorry, Raven, I really am,” Charles scrubbed a hand over his face, “here’s your espresso. And take a scone or muffin, please.”

Raven sipped her espresso, warming her hands on the cup. “You owe me an explanation.”

Charles sighed, feeling bad for his sister who traveled all the way from California just to see him and here he was being an asshole and obsessing over some guy he just met yesterday. “I suppose I do.” He took a deep breath and told Raven everything—from the leather jacket Erik was wearing, to the way Erik combs his fingers through his hair when he’s nervous and kisses better than anyone Charles had ever kissed.

“Charles!” she basically squealed by the time he was finished. “I’m so happy for you!”

Charles shook his head and shrugged sheepishly. “Oh goodness,” he said suddenly, “I didn’t even get his number.”

Raven pointed to his cup. “Well it _seems_ like you did.”

Charles narrowed his eyes and rotated his cup around to see Sharpie scrawled across the logo.

 

> Call me
> 
> xxx-xxx-xxxx
> 
> xoxo Erik

He couldn’t help but grin.

**Author's Note:**

> I LOVE MYSELF FOR THE LATTE PUN
> 
> inspired by this very important post: http://mgnetos.tumblr.com/post/96168094416/evelynwoe-finds-the-other-persons-wallet-on-the


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